He hired Nedry! A sloppy, unorganized, pig of a man, who I refuse to believe was at the top of the IT field. Not to mention he had a ton of debt. With most well paying jobs(and the military) serious debt is an instant dis-qualifier for hiring, since the temptation to steal is much higher. Yet Hammond gave Nedry access to his billion dollar IP.
shareHammond must have been more desperate to fill the position for his venture than he led on, especially inviting experts from relating fields to spruce up the park's public relations in order to further financial opportunities.
shareDuring the argument with Hammond in the control room, Nedry says the following:
"You know anybody who can network 8 connection machines and debug 2 million lines of code for what I bid for this job?"
So maybe he underbid his services only to try to renegotiate his salary. But then Hammond said no?
Hmm. In the book Nedry was just as sloppy and gross as the movie, but extra details were filled in, and he was definitely the top of his field. He wasn't a disgruntled employee due to being underpaid, but because he was mistreated.
At first, he was effectively working blind, he had to programme the systems remotely, with very little details as to what they were actually for, he didn't know they were for a dinosaur zoo. As the systems he developed (from his office) weren't quite right for the Park, there were lots of bugs, and he was forced to fix them without being paid extra, with Ingen claiming it was inline with him original contract, and threatening to sue.
This could be seen as "sparing expense", but not in the same way as hiring someone for cheap.
That makes a lot of sense. I know the book goes into more detail than the movie, especially on the technological science end due to the author, Michael Crichton's, medical background. Does this explanation also work for the film? I recall some elements being different between the two sources.
shareDoes this explanation also work for the film. I recall some elements being different between the two sources.
i dont know how much he was paid but nedry made it very clear he was top notch and was an asset, he could do things almost anyone else couldn't which made him valuable.
shareIndeed. It's quite clear that, despite any personal faults, Nedry was a master programmer and a high level computer professional. I'm not sure why this would be so hard to believe. Plenty of skilled IT guys are sloppy fucks, I can assure you.
shareProbably my years in the military have colored my perceptions on this, because when I see a walking bag of ass, the last thing I think is that guy must be killing it at work.
LOL. Fair enough.
I think that in the science and technology sectors--at least in the civilian world--you find a lot of eccentrics, and occasionally among them you'll find guys who look a lot like Nedry, taking no pride in their appearance and losing themselves almost entirely in the world of the computer.
A friend of mine works in IT and he has talked about guys he met who were brilliant, but if you just saw them on the street you'd think they might be homeless.
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It's due to Hammond's character in the book vs the movie. In the book, he was an ass who treated his employees badly and only cared about the park's success. It's the same with sending his grand-kids into a park full of predators. None of this matches with the friendly Hammond of the film.
shareyes youre right. anyone who has read the book would know this. it always seemed to me that they switched hammond's real personality with the lawyer.
shareI am rewatching JP now and came to the forum wondering the same thing.
Hammond saying: “I don’t blame people for their mistakes, but I do ask that they pay for them.” left me confused. What was the mistake?
In that case, I see where Nedry comes from. He is forced to fix mistakes which could be argued were caused by others and didn’t get paid for it.
And the movie does seem to establish he was top in his field. Hammond even said that they should call Nedry’s people in Cambridge.
Hammond's problem wasn't hiring Nedry but treating him badly. The book elaborates this more than the movie. Nedry no doubt isn't a great guy, but he did have legitimate grievances. Which doesn't justify his actions (he had no right to put other people in danger the way he did by shutting off the fences), but it shows that it didn't just come from nowhere. He wouldn't have done what he did if Hammond had treated him better.
The movie really sanitized Hammond, made him a nicer-seeming guy. The book made him out to be a much more unpleasant person.
"Hammond's problem wasn't hiring Nedry but treating him badly. The book elaborates this more than the movie."
thank you! yes the book Hammond is a major douche.. Spielberg turned him into a softer-nice-old-papa.
Nedry was a brilliant computer nerd who graduated Cambridge etc. etc.
he was one of the best. that's why he was hired. the fact he hatched an asshole plan is another point.
Hammond's problem wasn't hiring Nedry but treating him badly. The book elaborates this more than the movie.
Maybe the debts all came on after he was hired - gambling? Medical crisis not covered by insurance, or had no insurance? Bad investments? Divorce?
And Hammond didn't give Nedry direct access to the big money, there wasn't that kind of trust!
Nedry was the best in his field. Hammond needed multiple systems in the control room, and in other facilities on Isla Nublar to not only communicate with each other but also delegate automation systems with low latency. Nedry provided that. The entire perimeter fence system and individual paddock system was controlled by networked computers that Nedry connected.
Not only that, Nedry was a software programmer and could actually create and modify lines of code to customize the system for Hammond's project almost perfectly. All the software you see on the screens at Jurassic Park's control room was designed by Dennis Nedry, in the film, running on top of a Unix Operating System kernel.